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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Movie Review: Red Tails

As their white counterparts wage war with the Nazis over the
skies of Europe, the Tuskegee Airmen wait patiently in the wings. Uncle Sam, however, apparently sees them as
something of a nuisance and would have them permanently sidelined as World War
II rages on. However, this particular
band of brothers flat out refuses to let their talents wither and die on the
vine. With the help of powerful allies
in the upper ranks of the military, the airmen eventually earn the right to
fight and possibly die for a country that hardly values such a noble sacrifice.

Supposedly having finally put Star Wars behind him, George Lucas can now focus on his other enthusiasms. Red
Tails has the distinction of being the first Lucasfilm release in 19 years
that isn’t related to either Star Wars
or Indiana Jones. After 24 years in development Hell, it’s
finally ready for exhibition. The shadow
of the well-received HBO original film The
Tuskegee Airmen looms ominously overhead like a dark cloud. Red
Tails looks to distinguish itself from made-for-cable competition by
offering pulpier and more thrilling take on the material.

As has been well documented, Lucas is largely responsible
for the various forms of baby boomer nostalgia that dominated pop culture in last
quarter of the 20th century. Red Tails continues down that same path,
albeit without the unflagging energy of the original Star Wars or Raiders of the
Lost Ark. WWII as imagined by
Lucasfilm is a dreamland of heroic daring-do and mustache twirling villains. Despite such dated touches, Red Tails falls right in line with the
kind of ultra-serious Black military dramas that have become common since A Soldier’s Story. That’s not to say it attempts the same level
of depth and resonance, only that it plays everything very straight faced.

The cast of characters featured here mainly function as
stock character types, defined entirely by personality traits and physical
ticks. Ne-Yo plays Andrew
"Smoky" Salem as a snuff chewing hick. He comes off as more of a cartoon than an
actual human being. Terrence Howard’s
usual shaky voiced shtick serves him well here, though he isn’t asked to do
anything outside of his particular skillset.
A bit of House Negro vs. Field Negro tension is allowed to play out
between David Oyelowo and Nate Parker, but it’s mostly shown as an occasional flare
up in their otherwise close friendship.

The film mostly treats the adversity faced by the airmen as
fodder for a story about a group of scrappy outsiders looking to prove
themselves to the powers that be. Racial
confrontations are handled in a superficial manner. The indignities that were suffered by the
airmen in real life probably ran deeper and darker than anything Red Tails would be willing to show. To the films credit, the characters are never
passive victims, even when attempting to build bridges with the otherwise antagonistic
white fighter pilots. The film has no
pretensions about itself, though a much more substantial entertainment clearly
could have been crafted from this material.

Convert the galactic dogfights in Star Wars to the skies of WWII Europe, and you have an idea of how
the air combat in Red Tails plays
out. Fighters slip in and out of tight
squeezes like thread through a needles eye.
In some instances, they charge headlong into the camera itself with guns
blazing. The film’s opening titles evoke
the sensibilities at work. This is an
old war comic come to life, or perhaps even a pulp novel. It’s all rather quaint, but not offensively
so.

Red Tails
populates the same cinematic universe as Indiana
Jones save for the latter’s supernatural elements. However, even Indy’s outings showed a bit
more willingness to explore the dark side.
To be fair, Lucas never had such intentions for Red Tails. Unlike his playmate
Steven Spielberg, he sought not to make the grittiest and most harrowing war
film imaginable. He opted instead to
make the kind of film that he would’ve liked as a boy. While that might not be in line with modern
tastes, in its own way it’s sort of fitting.
Though I would have preferred something more along the lines of
Spielberg’s approach, I have a bit of affection for the lighthearted, cornball sentiments
of Red Tails.

About Me

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Scott Wilson, deep thinker and blogger extraordinaire. I'm also a published author and proud father. Last but certainly not least, I'm a single (IE Available), but I'm definitely looking to change that. My life is an ongoing work in progress, and I'm always looking to improve.